It's down to the wire for Christmas shopping

Donna Hawkins mulls over toys while shopping for Christmas presents at the Toys R Us on Sunday. Hawkins and her family had the flu last week and were unable to shop until today.

Andrew P. Johnson / The News Herald

By Zack McDonald / The News Herald

Published: Sunday, December 23, 2012 at 05:47 PM.

PANAMA CITY
— Most people dread the pressures of last-minute Christmas shopping, but there are those who put themselves in that frantic position by design.

With less than three days to Christmas day, Barbara Wilson had strategically held out shopping for her three grandchildren.

“They already have so many toys and are getting so much more,”
Wilson
said, Sunday afternoon, outside of the Toys ‘R’ Us at
809 East 23rd Street
. “I usually wait to take advantage of the lower prices and to ask what the others got for them, so I don’t end up getting the same thing.”

Several stores encouraged countdown shoppers.

Toys ‘R’ Us advertised a “super sale” with stores being open 24 hours a day from Dec. 21 until 10 p.m. Christmas Eve — 88 consecutive hours — with much of the stock at a discount.

Wal-Mart announced price cuts on iPhones and iPads. Discounts of $60 on the iPhone 5 and $100 off the third-generation iPad, along with a $30 iTunes gift card, are enticing, especially for much-sought after Apple products.

PANAMA CITY — Most people dread the pressures of last-minute Christmas shopping, but there are those who put themselves in that frantic position by design.

With less than three days to Christmas day, Barbara Wilson had strategically held out shopping for her three grandchildren.

“They already have so many toys and are getting so much more,” Wilson said, Sunday afternoon, outside of the Toys ‘R’ Us at 809 East 23rd Street. “I usually wait to take advantage of the lower prices and to ask what the others got for them, so I don’t end up getting the same thing.”

Several stores encouraged countdown shoppers.

Toys ‘R’ Us advertised a “super sale” with stores being open 24 hours a day from Dec. 21 until 10 p.m. Christmas Eve — 88 consecutive hours — with much of the stock at a discount.

Wal-Mart announced price cuts on iPhones and iPads. Discounts of $60 on the iPhone 5 and $100 off the third-generation iPad, along with a $30 iTunes gift card, are enticing, especially for much-sought after Apple products.

Many people out Sunday afternoon said they intentionally did not buy certain items in anticipation for last-minute Christmas sales.

“The closer it gets to Christmas day, the more a lot of these places will push their sales,” said Donna Everitt, entering Best Buy at 1000 East 23rd Street. “They want to clear their shelves of all the surplus stocked up for Christmas so they mark it down.”

However, you run the risk of the store selling out what you had hoped to buy, she added.

Other retailers are handing cash back. For every $50 spent at Kohl's until Dec. 24, the department store announced a return of a $10 store coupon. Target is also giving out gift cards worth up to $130 to shoppers who buy certain Dyson vacuums.

Besides the chance that a specific gift might be sold out, there are other down sides, according to Everitt — like traffic.

“It seems like a lot of people take unnecessary risks, because they think they can get lost in the crowd,” Everitt said.

Sometimes it just couldn’t be done any earlier shoppers said.

“We were finally able to actually get enough time off to shop for stuff,” said Marie Bartlett, as she entered Books-A-Million on the search for cooking DVDs for her granddaughter. “I just hope there are still some left over.”